Coating surfaces by a printing method

ABSTRACT

A method of applying a homogeneous layer of a coating material on a surface with a manually operated application device is presented, the device comprising a number of drop-on-demand printing nozzles perpendicularly to a main direction of movement, with means for measuring the movement with respect to the surface and with an electronic printing nozzle control, characterized by the steps, that an operator makes a selection of the printing nozzles, that the application device gives the operator feedback on the selection made, that the operator moves the application device over the surface, wherein the movement of the application device is measured continuously, that the selected print nozzles are driven with a clock rate that is based on their respective speed and which is configured that successive printing dots overlap, and that those nozzles of the selection, which have a negative velocity component with respect to the main direction of movement, are not be actuated.

The invention relates to the field of the coating of surfaces, especially of large areas with viscous coating materials in the construction sector and the industrial sector. As coating materials are understood, for example, architectural paints for indoor and outdoor use, industrial coatings and functional coatings. The layer thicknesses are typically from 20 to 150 micrometers.

The aforementioned coatings are now applied manually by brush, roller or spray equipment. The procedures have low productivity, produce non-uniform layer thicknesses and require, in particular in the case of splashing due to the strong “overspray” extensive preparations to protect the area from paint mist or paint splatters.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,981,462B2 describes a method for printing on building surfaces with graphical content with a manual paint applicator. This is arbitrarily moved over the surface. The position of the inking unit is continuously measured with a position measuring system which must be installed before starting work. Since the state of work of any pixel is stored permanently, a database is created, based on which it can be decided whether the pixel still needs to be printed, or whether it has already been printed. Thus, the paint output of a pressure nozzle is always prohibited when the pixel corresponding to the position of the nozzle has already been stored as “done”. This is to prevent a double-printing. If merely a coating without graphical content has to be applied, the installation of a position measurement system, the position measurement, a real-time image processing and a printing head control based on this is too expensive.

The object of the invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for applying in a simple and practical manner viscous coating materials by using a printing method.

The object is solved by the invention as follows: On a surface a homogeneous layer of a viscous coating material is applied by means of a movable coating device, by the movable applicator is brought into contact with the surface by means of rollers 3 or by sliding members, and, is moved by a motor or manually with a handle 10 mainly in a main movement direction 6. Drop-on-demand printing nozzles arranged in one or more rows apply the coating material as dots or spray dots on the surface of such a way that the dots or spray dots overlap. The output frequency of a respective drop-pressure nozzle 2 is variable and is determined depending on their movement speed.

The method according to the invention on the one hand provides for a high working speed of more than 1 m/s without spray or splash. On the other hand it also allows to print with extremely slow feed rate to precisely draw by hand limitations of paint regions and edges, at an always constant layer thickness. A single swath provides a closed layer with reproducible layer thickness independent of the operating speed. Because of the drop-on-demand printing technology there is no overspray. Very homogeneous and thin coatings can be achieved by application of spray dots instead of drops. Since the paint can be kept in a closed system, further the overall operation is very clean and no work preparations to protect the environment against pollution with paint have to be conducted.

The invention is based on a printing method (1) DE102009029946A1, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in this application. The working principle of the micro-pneumatically printing nozzles 2 according to (1) allows to print higher viscous and particle-loaded coating materials by adopting the contactless drop-on-demand (DOD)—method. As a DOD method it is understood the discontinuous discharge of discrete drops or discrete droplet mist from a pressure nozzle 2, wherein free-flying liquid impacts on the surface to be coated, and thus produces an imprinted dot 9. A plurality of nozzles are arranged linearly in a line or in an array out of multiple lines. The following the terms drops, droplets or droplet cloud are used synonymously and refer to a single liquid discharge of a pressure nozzle 2 due to a control signal.

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

FIGS. 1 a to b show a top view and side view of a manual printing device.

FIGS. 2 a to c show different types of wheel systems.

FIG. 3 illustrates schematically the arrangement of printing- or spray-dots 9 in case of a straight and a curved path.

FIG. 4 shows the scenario in case of a direction of movement deviating from the main direction of movement 6.

The invention proposes a portable, manually or motor-driven application device 1, see FIGS. 1 a, b, which is moved on a surface freely or on a predetermined route. A manual application device 1 is preferably moved freely on a surface, has a handle 10 like a paint roller and will be handled in a similar way. Also, the handle 10 can be connected to the application device 1 via an optional extension and a rotationally rigid, but flexible joint such as a Kardan joint. The applicator apparatus 1 runs on wheels 3 or sliding elements on the surface. Wheels 3 and slide elements can be used in any configuration and composition so that a certain drive property is achieved: Linear movements, curved movements along the main direction of movement, oblique or lateral movements. Wheels 3 and sliders further ensure a constant nozzle distance to the surface. To also process well on undried coating materials, wheels 3 may be formed so that they are in contact with the surface only by tips or teeth distributed in the circumference, as in case of narrow gear wheels, see FIG. 1 b. A hydrophobic coating of the wheels 3 and tips is advantageous. Preferably two wheels are mounted in a distance of a few centimeters in the forward direction of the line of printing nozzles 2, one or more other in a greater distance. The motion may be supported by motorized or robotic devices or carried out autonomously.

The invention is based on the thought that a row of regularly spaced drop-on-demand printing nozzles 2 are moved preferably perpendicular to the row on a surface to be coated. This preferred direction is in the following referred to as the main direction of movement 6. In dependence of the measured and/or calculated motion of each printing nozzle 2 printing dots 9 are applied by them point by point preferably with an equidistant spacing D (see FIG. 3). By this print dots 9 are placed as narrow to each other, that adjacent print dots 9 overlap and merge with each other. Print dots 9 can be applied as discrete droplets or as droplet clouds or in other words as a mist of droplets. The discharge frequency of a printing nozzle 2 is proportional to their movement speed and inversely proportional to the diameter of the print dot 9. The distance between adjacent printing nozzles 2 is also smaller than the diameter of the resulting print dots 9. It is the goal to achieve a homogeneous and closed coating layer. The size of the liquid droplets, the discharge speed of the droplet from the printing nozzle, the rheology of the coating material as well as the wetting properties of the coating material to the substrate determine whether the coating layer is sufficiently closed and homogenous.

The control of the printing nozzles 2 of the array is done by an embedded system, e.g. by use of a microcontroller or FPGA. To obtain a homogeneous coating with uniform thickness, it is the objective of the control unit to actuate the individual printing nozzles 2 thus, that the mean output of the coating material per surface unit is constant or is within a tolerance range. The output of the coating material is the product of the drop volume and number of drops.

A movement, herein understood as a “change of position over time” can be measured with odometric methods, for example, by measuring a covered distance by using incremental or absolute measuring sensors by measuring the rotation of wheels 3, by optical sensors which measure their relative change of position with respect to the substrate, by speed measurements at one or more points of the application device 1, by measuring a speed and a rotational speed of the application device 1, or by analyzing a predetermined and tracked path. Within this specification, the term velocity measurement is to be considered interchangeable with “time interval measurements of fixed displacements” or “displacement measurements at fixed time intervals.”

In a first variant, the application device 1 shall be moved on a straight path. This movement can be achieved by way of two wheels 3, which are aligned in parallel and comprise the same rolling speed. The direction of travel is preferably the main direction of movement 6. Embodiments thereof are juxtaposed wheels 3, connected by a rigid axle or synchronously driven wheels 3. All printing nozzles 2 comprise the same speed at all times and therefore can be actuated synchronously. So the distance D between successively printed dots 9 of all of the printing nozzles is constant, see FIG. 3. This mode of operation is advantageous if rectilinear borders of a coating layer have to be drawn precisely but without further aids.

If the rollers 3 are not coupled with each other, they allow for circular or curved motion by still preventing sideways movements. FIG. 3 illustrates this case: In a left turn, which is a superposition of a forward and rotary movement, nozzle 4 has to cover a longer track than the nozzle 1. The distance between the successively discharged points of each print nozzle remains D. The printing nozzles are thus not driven synchronously, nozzle 1 has a lower firing frequency than nozzle 4. In case of a small forward but a large rotational velocity component, negative velocities occur at a number of nozzles. In this case, these respective printing nozzles 2 are not actuated. Circular and curved movements require to measure and/or calculate the rotation of the application device 1, for example by measuring the speeds of the two wheels 3, or by measuring a velocity in a forward direction and a rotational speed with a rotational speed sensor.

Arbitrary movements, including lateral movements, can be realized when using swivelling rollers 4, ball casters or sliding elements. Thus, if the application device 1 is embodied as handheld application device 1, it can be moved in serpentines over the surface thus keeping it in permanent contact, similar as it is done by a “puller” when cleaning floors and windows. Since the freehand drawing of straight lines with this method is difficult due to a missing lateral guide, the swivelling bearings of the swivelling rollers 3 may be locked temporarily. Lateral movements result in an effectively smaller-point distance d_(eft) in the direction of movement 6 in comparison to the printing nozzle distance D, see FIG. 4. To obtain the postulated constant product out of the number of printed dots times the volume per dot dots it can be fired with a lower frequency. But this is feasible only in case of a small lateral movement component. In case of a larger lateral movement component the overlap of two points in the direction perpendicular to the main movement direction would be too large and so would have to be compensated by extremely large distances between dots in the main direction in order to prohibit a locally too high application of paint. Therefore, the liquid volume of the liquid discharged per dot must be reduced and at the same time the firing frequency has to be increased such, that the product of printed dots times the volume per dot will be correct again per surface unit.

To facilitate printing of outer edges, all embodiments mentioned before may comprise movable and lockable stops 11 as shown in FIG. 1 a. Straight or curved lines or paint edges can also be drawn by using a ruler or contour rail which is attached to or manually pressed on the surface with a first hand, while the application device is moved along a side face or side guide of the ruler with the second hand.

The rotation of the wheels 3 can be damped by use of passive and/or active damping methods to obtain continuous acceleration profiles, or to obtain a speed-dependent resistance to movement, and to prevent the operator of a manual application device for example to exceed of a maximum speed, by providing a defined manual feeling. Passive damping systems may include for example liquid bearings with linear viscous or with shear rate progressively viscous liquids for the wheels 3, or flywheel mass systems with gear transmissions, active damping methods may include servomotors that are actively controlled or generators with a speed—dependent load.

In many cases it is not required the entire print width, as is results from the number of print nozzles located in a row 2. For this purpose a part of the printing nozzles 2 are disabled. The deactivation can be done by human interface devices like linear or rotary switches, touch screens or tactile sensors. The active printing nozzles 2 can be identified optically for example by LEDs 8 in the switched-on state.

Opaque coating materials can be applied in overlapping swaths. In the region of overlap by this the double layer thickness is obtained. Depending on the application, e.g. in the field of the facade coating this layer thickness variation is tolerable.

On surfaces with small roughness or in the case of large layer thicknesses, the overlap regions are possibly visible so that a solution is needed to prevent a double printing. The solutions are based on the approach, that it is optically detected, whether a coating material at the position of one or more printing nozzles 2 already exists on the surface. In this case, the respective pressure nozzle is deactivated at this position. In order to produce a strong optical contrast to the substrate, an additive can be added to the coating material, which is phosphorescent or the color of which is outside of the visible light. Detection can be done by means of optical sensors such as photodiode arrays or a cheap, wide CCD line 5, as used in image scanners. The latter can be mounted at the bottom, located in direction of movement 6 before the printing nozzles 2 array. Optical filters can be used to obtain a matched selectivity with respect to the light emission or reflection of the additives as mentioned above. So, if a CCD element of the CCD line 5 has detected an existing paint layer, the printing nozzle, which can be assigned to it by considering the direction of movement 6, is deactivated.

The use of the application device 1 according to the invention allows the mobile coating of surfaces without any preparatory activities at the surfaces. The fluids including the coating material can be supplied under pressure completely within in closed systems, so that the risk to contaminate the environment with coating materials is minimized. Different components are required for operation of the application device, which are part of a set. The manual application device 1 may contain the following components: A series of micro-pneumatic actuated printing nozzles 2 to which the coating material is supplied under pressure and with a distance d to each other such, that the spray patterns of adjacent print nozzles overlap at least partial; a manually or automatically actuated covering member for the print nozzles 2 to prevent rapid drying in of coating material; a CCD line sensor 5 for detecting already printed areas; user input elements for play/pause/stop and selection of the active printing nozzle 2, enabling detection of already coated areas; locking member for axes; a rinsing circuit with rinsing liquid, a feed reservoir and a waste reservoir, to clean the ink nozzle 2; a peripheral reservoir for the coating material or cartridges containing coating material, a circulation system for the coating material, and means for generating pressure.

The use of the application device 1 according to the invention further allows the processing of multi-component materials which are brought together pointwise at the place of application or directly on the surface. In this way, highly reactive 2-component materials can be applied to for a coating by use of a mobile device. For this purpose at least 2 rows of pneumatically driven printing nozzles 2 must be realized, whereas their outlets are appropriately arranged so, that the ejected coating material components get into contact with each other on the way to the surface or on directly on the surface. 

1. A method of applying a homogeneous layer of a coating material on a surface with a manually operated application device comprising a number of drop-on-demand printing nozzles perpendicularly to a main direction of movement, with means for measuring the movement with respect to the surface and with an electronic printing nozzle control, characterized by the steps, that an operator makes a selection of the printing nozzles that the application device gives the operator feedback on the selection made, that the operator moves the application device over the surface, wherein the movement of the application device is measured continuously, that the selected print nozzles are driven with a clock rate that is based on their respective speed and which is configured that successive printing dots overlap, and that those nozzles of the selection, which have a negative velocity component with respect to the main direction of movement, are not be actuated.
 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least two nozzles of the selection are driven with selection a different clock rate.
 3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the discharge of coating material from nozzles having a the movement component perpendicular to the main direction is reduced.
 4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the drop-on-demand printing nozzles discharge spray dots of the coating material.
 5. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the application device is moved on the surface by means of rollers which have radially outwardly directed spikes or teeth.
 6. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that it is moved by means of rollers on the surface, whereas the surfaces of the rolls 3 that are in contact with the surface are hydrophobic.
 7. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the application device is moved by means of rolls on the surface and for determining the movement speed the measured rotation speed of one or more rollers is used.
 8. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the application device is moved by means of casters on the surface.
 9. A method according to claim 8, characterized in that the pivot bearing at least one pivot roller is temporarily locked.
 10. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the printing nozzles 2 include an array of micro-electro-pneumatic transducers which actuates an array of drop-on-demand printing nozzles 2 pneumatically.
 11. Manual application device, with a series of drop-on-demand printing nozzles which are arranged perpendicular to a main direction of movement, means for measuring the velocity relative to the surface, for carrying out the method according to claim 1, comprising Input means for manual selection of print nozzles, Output means for displaying the selection, a control unit for generating at least two clock signals of different frequency for controlling printing nozzles, at least one roller with radially outwardly directed spikes or teeth arranged on the circumference. 